John is a founder of TEM Capital as well as CEO of Continuum Energy Technologies LLC (CET) with expertise in energy, environment, technology, and entrepreneurship. Before starting CET, John was the Director of Technology Development (and Licensing) at M.I.T. responsible for the commercialization of intellectual property developed at M.I.T. John led to the creation of hundreds of new technology-based companies and issued in excess of a thousand licenses. John also taught entrepreneurship at M.I.T. as a Senior Lecturer.
John was awarded the rank of “Knight of the Order of National Merit of France” by French President Mitterrand. He was awarded the “Hammer Award for Reinventing Government” by Vice President Gore. He chaired President George H. W. Bush’s conference announcing the President’s technology initiative. He co-chaired a conference for HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales Technology Awards Conference. He advised the Clinton White House in preparation for the Kyoto Summit on climate change and he spoke at President Reagan’s White House Conference on Superconductivity. He testified before Congress seven times as an expert on technology innovation and has been on advisory boards for the US DOD, NASA, US DOC and numerous others.
He is the recipient of many other awards and honors including the Thomas Jefferson Award, given to the leading American in technology transfer and the Renaissance Engineering and Science award from Stevens Institute of Technology. Mr. Preston is Honorary Alum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Preston received a B.S. in physics from the University of Wisconsin and a M.B.A. from Northwestern University.